Letters to the Editor

Wednesday

Jul 3, 2013 at 2:00 AM

Obama is right about climate

Obama is right about climate

In addressing climate change, the president was correct when announcing that we don't have time to hold discussions with the Flat Earth Society. Fully 97 percent of climate scientists agree the planet is warming and humans are contributing. You'd be hard pressed to find that degree of unanimity among scientific experts on any issue.

We have to wean ourselves from fossil fuels now — not tomorrow, not next century. There is no fossil fuel that is acceptable. Clean coal is a myth, while natural gas is as bad as coal. The toxic and greenhouse gas consequences of fracking make it totally unacceptable as a means of extracting anything.

Meanwhile, the Keystone XL pipeline merely encourages open pit mining for tar sands oil in a manner that makes it the most polluting oil imaginable on the planet. The math tells us this oil must be left in the ground if we wish to maintain a livable planet through the century. There is no wiggle room here — the imperative is clear.

Fossil fuel industry proponents of greed and planetary destruction argue we cannot afford to address climate change as though future generations should be sacrificed for their profit. This view is unacceptable!

Alan Journet

Jacksonville

It's time to kill nuisance deer

Last week, a woman, a close friend living far below North Main Street, was attacked and her dog trampled by a deer that was decimating her garden.

She was not hurt, but her dog was. She was attempting to shoo the deer off her property and, since it's illegal to "harass" deer, she could likely be cited. However, she called the police asking if they keep records of attacks and was told that they do not.

It's time! Time for the council to do something besides voice concern, view with alarm, count the deer and then maybe call a Portland consultant. Time for deluded Bambi lovers to recognize that these long-legged vermin are a danger to people, a hazard to traffic, a destroyer of gardens, are not "cute" or picturesque, were not "here in town before we were" and whose only present practical purpose should be to provide venison for food banks. It's time to call in bow hunters to thin the herd and remove a colossal danger and nuisance.